Pablo Bustillos makes an in court at the Boulder County Justice Center in Boulder, Colorado March 13, 2013.
(Mark Leffingwell/For the Times-Call)

BOULDER -- A 35-year-old man accused of fleeing police and causing a wreck that killed a 21-year-old Longmont man in March pleaded guilty to several charges on Wednesday in a deal that spares him a first-degree murder trial.

Pablo Bustillos pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, vehicular eluding causing death, and two counts of vehicular assault. Under the deal, the first-degree murder charge was dismissed and he faces a prison term between 24 and 40 years, which will be determined at a sentencing hearing set for Aug. 26.

According to police, at about 10 p.m. March 6, a Longmont officer attempted to stop Bustillos' Nissan Altima on suspicion of failing to remain in a designated lane on Collyer Street near 10th Avenue, but the car sped north on Collyer to 19th Avenue. Bustillos turned back through the neighborhood and ended up traveling west on 17th Avenue, police said.

Dale Johnson, 21, is shown in a Facebook profile photo dated September 2011. According to police, he was killed on March 6, 2013, when his white Grand Prix was struck in the intersection of 17th Avenue and Main Street by a driver fleeing police.
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The officer who initially tried to stop the Altima did not give chase, according to police, but the car continued to flee at high speeds as other officers tried to keep track of him. According to a police report, Bustillos' car entered the intersection at 17th Avenue and Main Street, running a red light, and struck 21-year-old Dale Johnson's white Grand Prix traveling north on Main. Johnson was killed. Two passengers in Bustillos' car were injured.

First-degree murder is rarely charged in fatal car wrecks, but the nature of the driving does give prosecutors the option to charge the more serious crime in cases where "extreme indifference" to others is found.

A small memorial for Johnson remains maintained at the northwest corner of 17th Avenue and Main Street on top of a retaining wall that was initially damaged in the wreck.

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